| 1. |
- Anderson, Pippin, et al.
(author)
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Post-apartheid ecologies in the City of Cape Town : An examination of plant functional traits in relation to urban gradients
- 2020
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In: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 193, s. 1-10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this study we explore species richness and traits across two urban gradients in the City of Cape Town. The first is the natural-urban boundary and the second is a socio-economic gradient informed by historical race-based apartheid planning. Plant species and cover were recorded in 156 plots sampled from conservation areas, private gardens, and public open green space. The socio-economic gradient transitioned from wealthier, predominantly white neighbourhoods to poorer, pre- dominantly black neighbourhoods. The socio-economic gradient was selected to fall within one original vegetation type to ensure a consistent biophysical template. There is a marked shift between the natural and urban plant communities in the City of Cape Town, with little structural affinity. Urban landscapes are dominated by grass, with low diversity compared to natural counterparts. A significant ecological gradient of reduced biodiversity, traits, and in turn functionality, was found across the socio-economic gradient. Wealthier communities benefit from more private green space, more public green space, and a greater plant diversity. Poorer communities have limited green space on all fronts, and lower plant and trait diversity. Plant communities with limited diversity are less resilient and if exposed to environmental perturbation would lose species, and associated ecosystem services faster than a species rich community. These species-poor plant communities mirror historical apartheid planning that is resistant to change. Based on how biodiversity, functionality, and associated ecosystem services and ecosystem stability are linked, the results of this study suggests how significant environmental injustice persists in the City of Cape Town.
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| 2. |
- Elmqvist, Thomas, et al.
(author)
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Urban tinkering
- 2018
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In: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 13:6, s. 1549-1564
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cities are currently experiencing serious, multifaceted impacts from global environmental change, especially climate change, and the degree to which they will need to cope with and adapt to such challenges will continue to increase. A complex systems approach inspired by evolutionary theory can inform strategies for policies and interventions to deal with growing urban vulnerabilities. Such an approach would guide the design of new (and redesign of existing) urban structures, while promoting innovative integration of grey, green and blue infrastructure in service of environmental and health objectives. Moreover, it would contribute to more flexible, effective policies for urban management and the use of urban space. Four decades ago, in a seminal paper in Science, the French evolutionary biologist and philosopher Francois Jacob noted that evolution differs significantly in its characteristic modes of action from processes that are designed and engineered de novo (Jacob in Science 196(4295):1161-1166, 1977). He labeled the evolutionary process tinkering, recognizing its foundation in the modification and molding of existing traits and forms, with occasional dramatic shifts in function in the context of changing conditions. This contrasts greatly with conventional engineering and design approaches that apply tailor-made materials and tools to achieve well-defined functions that are specified a priori. We here propose that urban tinkering is the application of evolutionary thinking to urban design, engineering, ecological restoration, management and governance. We define urban tinkering as:A mode of operation, encompassing policy, planning and management processes, that seeks to transform the use of existing and design of new urban systems in ways that diversify their functions, anticipate new uses and enhance adaptability, to better meet the social, economic and ecological needs of cities under conditions of deep uncertainty about the future.This approach has the potential to substantially complement and augment conventional urban development, replacing predictability, linearity and monofunctional design with anticipation of uncertainty and non-linearity and design for multiple, potentially shifting functions. Urban tinkering can function by promoting a diversity of small-scale urban experiments that, in aggregate, lead to large-scale often playful innovative solutions to the problems of sustainable development. Moreover, the tinkering approach is naturally suited to exploring multi-functional uses and approaches (e.g., bricolage) for new and existing urban structures and policies through collaborative engagement and analysis. It is thus well worth exploring as a means of delivering co-benefits for environment and human health and wellbeing. Indeed, urban tinkering has close ties to systems approaches, which often are recognized as critical to sustainable development. We believe this concept can help forge much-closer, much-needed ties among engineers, architects, evolutionary ecologists, health specialists, and numerous other urban stakeholders in developing innovative, widely beneficial solutions for society and contribute to successful implementation of SDG11 and the New Urban Agenda.
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| 3. |
- Goodness, Julie, et al.
(author)
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Exploring the links between functional traits and cultural ecosystem services to enhance urban ecosystem management
- 2016
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In: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 70, s. 597-605
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Functional traits have been proposed as a more mechanistic way than species data alone to connect biodiversity to ecosystem processes and function in ecological research. Recently, this framework has also been broadened to include connections of traits to ecosystem services. While many links between traits and ecosystem processes/functions are easily and logically extended to regulating, supporting, and provisioning services, connections to cultural services have not yet been dealt with in depth. We argue that addressing this gap may involve a renegotiation of what have traditionally been considered traits, and a targeted effort to include and expand upon efforts to address traits-cultural ecosystem services links in traits research. Traits may also offer a better way to explore the recognition and appreciation of biodiversity. Drawing upon examples from outside the explicit traits literature, we present a number of potential connections between functional traits and cultural ecosystem services for attention in future research. Finally, we explore considerations and implications of employing a traits approach in urban areas, and examine how connections between traits and ecosystem services could be developed as indicators in a research and management context to generate a robust and resilient supply of ecosystem services.
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| 4. |
- Goodness, Julie
(author)
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Linking functional traits and cultural ecosystem services in urban areas through human preferences
- 2016
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Urban areas are now the daily lived experience for the majority of the world’s people, and it is therefore important to explore what kind of ecological communities and corresponding ecosystem functions and services are being generated in these environments. Urban areas are shaped by a variety of factors, but arguably one of the most influential is that of people, in terms of how their preferences and active selective choices for biota play out in the landscape. A better understanding of these processes and dynamics can contribute toward better scientific knowledge as well as inform management decisions for creating more robust and resilient landscapes of ecosystem function and services. A functional traits approach, which links particular aspects of organisms related to fitness to ecosystem processes, functions, and services, may provide one way of interpreting the significance of biodiversity in the urban landscape. While this approach has traditionally linked traits to processes and functions, recently it has been conceptually extended to include services. Links between traits and provisioning, regulating, and supporting services have been well-characterized, but connections to cultural services have been less explored. This thesis addresses this critical information gap and how human preferences could be connected to the traits framework through an examination of the connections between functional traits and cultural ecosystem services. Paper I, a literature review, investigates scholarship outside the explicit field of functional traits to identify potential trait-cultural service linkages. It finds the strongest base of support for connections between traits and aesthetic benefits (particularly visual); though connections to spiritual, heritage, and wellbeing benefits are also identified. It suggests that what is considered a “functional trait” may need to be revisited in light of the expansion of to include not only ecosystem processes and functions, but services as well. The paper also explores how functional traits could be operationalized in a management context, with the development of trait-service indicators. Paper II builds upon the work of Paper I, and provides an empirical, case study interrogation of connections between traits and cultural ecosystem services in Cape Town, South Africa. It examines people’s expressed preferences for plant traits, and finds that traits related to visual and aesthetic appeal are described as the most common reason for selection, though traits related to use (e.g. as food) and low resource input are also cited. It also points to other factors beyond preference that may influence human selection for plants in the landscape. Together, these two papers provide a more detailed understanding of human preferences for traits in urban areas, and which traits may be connected to which services. This builds knowledge within the functional traits field and provides a basis for further study in research. It also points to trait-cultural ecosystem service connections that can be harnessed in management actions to select for trait combinations that will provide both ecosystem services and ecosystem resilience.
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| 5. |
- Goodness, Julie, et al.
(author)
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Patterns of socially-valued plant traits across urban land uses in Stockholm, Sweden
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In order to contribute to urban sustainability and the generation of enjoyable, multifunctional spaces for city residents, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of the environments that are being shaped in urban areas. This study examines patterns of vegetation structure and cover, as well as tree species and socially-valued tree traits across the urban landscape of Stockholm, Sweden. It uses the lenses of two different land classes for this investigation: (1) seven categories of urban morphology, and (2) three categories of land management: private, public, and remnant reference vegetation sites. Results indicate significant differences across urban morphology, with the greatest extents of tree and ground cover layer in forests, the least in industrial and contiguous closed urban sites, and a near absence of shrub layer across all classes. Ground cover indicates a shift from an herbaceous mix to a combination of grass and impervious cover from more exurban to urban sites. A diversity of socially-valued tree traits is exhibited most strongly across those spaces most intensely managed for use by humans. Similar functions may be provided by different species in the landscape. While tree species differed when comparing public and private land use, their functional profiles were similar, indicating potential for response diversity and resilience across the urban area of Stockholm in the face of environmental change. Overall, this study serves as a pilot for using traits as an indicator tool for discerning and mapping social-ecological value in urban areas. We suggest that future investigations further explore the potential of using traits as both social and ecological value indicators and as cues for management actions.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Goodness, Julie, 1985-
(author)
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Shaping urban environments through human selection for plant traits
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Cities, as home to the majority of the world’s people, are significant sites for addressing challenges of achieving sustainability and securing human wellbeing. Urban environments are complex social-ecological systems, and meeting these challenges requires better understandings of the interactions of social and ecological elements. While there are many possible lenses through which to study social-ecological systems, this thesis examines the potential of a traits approach as one way to link ecological elements to social values. In ecology, functional traits have been defined as the characteristics of organisms that determine how organisms respond to the environment, and how they affect ecosystem processes, functions, and services. While functional traits have an established history of being linked to ecosystem processes and functions, they have only recently been extended to social aspects through the operationalization of the ecosystem services concept. As such, there is a distinct gap in identifying traits that are relevant and important to people. This interdisciplinary thesis attempts to bridge some of this lacuna, through empirical studies conducted in two cities: Cape Town, South Africa, and Stockholm, Sweden. Paper 1 addresses connections between traits and social values generally across cities through a literature review that examines connections between traits and cultural ecosystem services. Paper 2 explores preferences for traits and reasons for plant selection in the context of Cape Town. Paper 3 examines vegetation patterns and the expression of socially-valued traits across different land cover and land use classes in Stockholm. Paper 4 serves as a synthesis and comparison piece between Cape Town and Stockholm, and brings together social data on plant preferences and ecological data on plant patterns gathered in both locations under two different projects. Overall, responses from social surveys of preferences suggest that people actively select for a variety of different plant traits in the urban environment, and have a multitude of reasons for selecting the plants that they do, related both to qualities of the plants themselves, as well as broader external factors at multiple scales. Vegetation surveys of plant patterns suggest that trait preferences may be inscribed by people in the landscape, though to differing degrees. Using traits as an approach to link ecological elements to social values exhibits advantages in that traits are a spatial unit that is easily understood by citizens and environmental managers. However, it presents limitations in terms of scale, as traits are most useful in connecting to pin-point characteristics in the landscape, and social values associated with broader scales may be overlooked. Collectively, however, the papers in this thesis suggest that traits may serve as one useful approach for discerning human values in the urban landscape, and can be used as indicators of social function. In management applications, particular traits can be incorporated into landscaping interventions to provide for urban areas of greater social meaning. In this way, traits may serve as one tool within the evolving toolbox of social-ecological system study, and thus can contribute to future urban landscapes that exhibit robust social and ecological function.
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| 8. |
- Goodness, Julie
(author)
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Urban landscaping choices and people’s selection of plant traits in Cape Town, South Africa
- 2018
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In: Environmental Science and Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1462-9011 .- 1873-6416. ; 85, s. 182-192
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As cities increasingly become the dominant settlement form across the world, it is critical to gain a deeper insight into their dynamics, in order to better direct environmental management towards enhancing urban sustainability and environmental quality. People are a key driver shaping the ecological makeup of cities, not least through landscaping actions and choices. In this study, we explore social factors shaping plant selection in Cape Town, South Africa through interviews with stakeholders responsible for managing and landscaping across three land use types: private residential gardens, public parks and open space, and conservation areas. We combine an interdisciplinary, multi-scalar framework on residential landscape dynamics and a plant traits lens to structure our approach to examining the influence of social factors on plant selection across spatial and institutional scales in the city, from a bottom-up perspective. Residents name a variety of reasons for plant selection at the household scale related to plant traits, including aesthetics, utility (e.g., food provision), environmental suitability, and personal symbolic meanings. Parks managers select for ecological suitability as well as aesthetic concerns, and conservation managers select chiefly for ecological integrity. All stakeholders describe factors at other scales (e.g., property structure, government policies) that influence their plant selection. We indicate that a complementary patchwork of private gardens and public open spaces could serve as a source of trait diversity and provide a variety of ecosystem functions and services in the urban landscape, and suggest that management and policy efforts can focus on leveraging synergies towards this end. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the social-ecological dynamics in a global south city and biodiversity hotspot.
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| 9. |
- Haider, L. Jamila, 1987-, et al.
(author)
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The undisciplinary journey : early-career perspectives in sustainability science
- 2018
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In: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 13:1, s. 191-204
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The establishment of interdisciplinary Master’s and PhD programs in sustainability science is opening up an exciting arena filled with opportunities for early-career scholars to address pressing sustainability challenges. However, embarking upon an interdisciplinary endeavor as an early-career scholar poses a unique set of challenges: to develop an individual scientific identity and a strong and specific methodological skill-set, while at the same time gaining the ability to understand and communicate between different epistemologies. Here, we explore the challenges and opportunities that emerge from a new kind of interdisciplinary journey, which we describe as ‘undisciplinary.’ Undisciplinary describes (1) the space or condition of early-career researchers with early interdisciplinary backgrounds, (2) the process of the journey, and (3) the orientation which aids scholars to address the complex nature of today’s sustainability challenges. The undisciplinary journey is an iterative and reflexive process of balancing methodological groundedness and epistemological agility to engage in rigorous sustainability science. The paper draws upon insights from a collective journey of broad discussion, reflection, and learning, including a survey on educational backgrounds of different generations of sustainability scholars, participatory forum theater, and a panel discussion at the Resilience 2014 conference (Montpellier, France). Based on the results from this diversity of methods, we suggest that there is now a new and distinct generation of sustainability scholars that start their careers with interdisciplinary training, as opposed to only engaging in interdisciplinary research once strong disciplinary foundations have been built. We further identify methodological groundedness and epistemological agility as guiding competencies to become capable sustainability scientists and discuss the implications of an undisciplinary journey in the current institutional context of universities and research centers. In this paper, we propose a simple framework to help early-career sustainability scholars and well-established scientists successfully navigate what can sometimes be an uncomfortable space in education and research, with the ultimate aim of producing and engaging in rigorous and impactful sustainability science.
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| 10. |
- Jarzebski, Marcin Pawel, et al.
(author)
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Ageing and population shrinking : implications for sustainability in the urban century
- 2021
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In: npj Urban Sustainability. - : Springer Nature. - 2661-8001. ; 1:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Population ageing and shrinking are demographic phenomena with far-reaching implications for sustainability in the current context of extensive and rapid urbanization. This Perspective rationalizes their interface by (a) identifying the challenges and opportunities that ageing and shrinking urban populations will have for implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and (b) discussing some emerging interventions to capitalise on the opportunities and reduce the challenges to achieving sustainability. We argue that a diverse set of context-specific technological, socioeconomic, institutional and governance interventions would be needed to leverage effectively the opportunities and minimize the risks posed by ageing and shrinking urban populations for long-term sustainability.
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